


Hero

by Inner Voice (inner_v0ice)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-30
Updated: 2012-08-30
Packaged: 2017-11-13 05:21:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inner_v0ice/pseuds/Inner%20Voice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hinata can hear the rustle of movement and the thunk of weapons hitting wood as she approaches the makeshift training grounds.  She used to know her fellow ninjas’ training schedules well enough to avoid them and practice in solitude, but Pain’s attack had demolished the old training fields and changed everyone’s routines beyond recognition, so nowadays she’s likely to cross paths with anyone from Konohamaru-kun to Kakashi-san while training.<br/>(She hopes it isn’t Kakashi-san.  Practicing in the presence of jounin is still a bit more than her nerves can handle.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Autumn Drabble Round Jounin Exam](http://kakairu-fest.livejournal.com/76562.html#cutid1) at kakairu_fest.  
> Prompt: _Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior — Clausewitz_

Hinata can hear the rustle of movement and the thunk of weapons hitting wood as she approaches the makeshift training grounds. She used to know her fellow ninjas’ training schedules well enough to avoid them and practice in solitude, but Pain’s attack had demolished the old training fields and changed everyone’s routines beyond recognition, so nowadays she’s likely to cross paths with anyone from Konohamaru-kun to Kakashi-san while training.  
(She hopes it isn’t Kakashi-san. Practicing in the presence of jounin is still a bit more than her nerves can handle.)

It’s not Kakashi-san. It’s Iruka-sensei, and she stops for a minute to stare. She’s never seen her old teacher fight like this. At the Academy he’d demonstrated single moves for them, drilling them over and over until they got it right. Occasionally when the class was doing particularly well, he’d tried to get them to see how one move could flow into another —how to link the block they were learning to the kick they learned last week; how to follow up a dodge with a thrown shuriken— and Hinata had been pathetically grateful for the change from her father’s method, which consisted of expecting her to string together long sequences of moves without any instruction or explanation.

The point being, she had never seen Iruka-sensei in action for more than a few seconds at a time. Seeing him like this now, attacking the training posts with a flurry of kicks and punches, then a sudden volley of kunai, he looked like…well, like a _ninja_. She knew he was one, of course, but somehow she had never been able to imagine him going on missions or fighting enemies; in her imagination he was always in the Academy classroom, a reassuringly constant figure whether she was ten or twelve or sixteen.

She snaps out of her staring when Iruka-sensei lets his attack skid to a halt and looks over at her with a smile. “Hinata-chan! —or maybe I should start calling you Hinata- _san_ …”

Hinata blushes to the tips of her ears and stammers her way through an embarrassed protest while Iruka tries to say something about her being a full-fledged ninja now, and after a moment they both stutter to a stop, look at each other, and burst into laughter.

After Hinata has stifled the last of her giggles behind her hands and Iruka’s chuckles have faded into a wide grin, he turns an abruptly intense look on her.

“Hinata-chan,” he says, “do you know why I’m training?”

_Huh?_

“I’m training harder because I want to be as strong as you.”

Hinata’s mouth drops open and she stares at Iruka. Her eyes get wider and wider until she finally lets out a strangled squeak. Iruka smiles at her, the same bright, approving smile from her Academy days.

“You’re a hero, Hinata-chan. You were brave enough to stand between Pain and Naruto. You fought to protect the person you love. _I want to be strong enough to do that too._ ”


End file.
